Arduino Powered Remote Control Lawnmower

We’ve seen loads of great Arduino projects and even a few RC lawn mowers, but we’ve never seen the two combined until now. Â This project walks you through the entire build process step by step and includes a thorough guide for creating remote control robotics.

You can read the entire build tutorial to perhaps create your own robotic servant. Â Now all you need is a hammock to relax in while your new robot mows the grass for you

Why stop at remote control, why not add on a GPS receiver and a compass and program it to do even lines over the whole yard on it’s own? It could even have it’s own little “doghouse” that it could automatically back into and charge while being sheltered from the elements. On command it would go out and cover the whole yard following a predefined path.

Andy Hill

April 7th, 2011

Rob: The GPS receiver idea is the right idea, but the wrong sensor. GPS would be too slow to respond and not accurate enough. I intend to install fixed reference point LED beacons in the yard (probably 4 or 5), and use an onboard wiimote tracker or two to solve for the exact vector and coordinates real time of the mower. A pre-programmed database would contain the desired mowing pattern of the lawn. I figure it will be accurate to +/- inches. Problem: Can the wiimote “see” 50 meters in daylight?

Jason

June 29th, 2011

Andy: Even if the Wiimote can “see” 50 meters in the daylight… it’s still the wrong sensor. What you need is several solar powered radio “beacons” that define the boundaries of your property and of any obstacles (trees, patios, gardens, etc). Even then… you still have an issue with “resolution”. Much like a digital camera is limited by pixels in resolution… this device would be limited by the number of beacons.

Get enough of the radio beacons planted, you could, in theory, get a resolution of +/- millimetres. Albeit it would make the project quite costly.